Save The 100 Club! | reviews, news & interviews
Save The 100 Club!
Save The 100 Club!
Stars flock to rescue historic venue
Friday, 19 November 2010
Musical luminaries including Mick Jagger, Paul Weller, Ray Davies and Liam Gallagher are lending their support to a campaign to save The 100 Club, the historic music venue in London’s Oxford Street. Soaring business rates of £4000 a month and an annual rental bill of £166,000 have driven the club to the brink of bankruptcy, and unless the savethe100club campaign proves successful, it faces closure by Christmas.
Club owner Jeff Horton says: “The Government, Westminster council and even some of the commercial landlords say they want to help small businesses, they say they want to preserve London’s uniqueness, they want to help multicultural venues. Yet we’re all that and all these organisations have dumped on us from a great height.”
The savethe100club campaign aims to raise enough donations from individuals to buy out the club and take over its running as a Not For Profit organisation. This would make it eligible for Lottery or Heritage funding, and the new trustees would apply for heritage status to safeguard its future.
The club has hosted legions of famous names including Muddy Waters, the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols
The venue began as the Feldman Swing Club during World War Two, when it proved a hot favourite with American GIs. It was renamed The 100 Club in 1964, when Horton’s father took it over. Over the decades the club has hosted legions of famous names from blues, jazz, reggae, rock and punk, including Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, B B King, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Oasis and The Specials. With the Astoria, the Metro and the Marquee Club already gone, the closure of The 100 Club would leave central London denuded of music venues.
“The Kinks played there and it’s such an iconic venue, we shouldn’t allow things like that to close down,” says Ray Davies. “Everything is being overrun by the chain stores and the conglomerates and it’s such a pity that The 100 Club has to suffer like that.”
Davies also proposes an alternative solution. “Simon Cowell should underwrite the money needed to save The 100 Club. The amount of money he takes out of pop music, he could put some back in.”
- Support the savethe100club campaign here
Watch George McCallum's Save The 100 Club mini-documentary:
Add comment
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more
Help to give theartsdesk a future!
Support our GoFundMe appeal
Primal Scream, O2 Academy, Birmingham review - from anthems of social justice to songs of heartbreak
Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes aren’t ready to join the heritage circuit yet
Peter Grimes, Welsh National Opera review - febrile energy and rage
In every sense a tour de force
An Evening with Joan Armatrading, Cadogan Hall review - thoughtful and engaging conversation
From rock'n'roll to Open University, the singer on life and work
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealed
Schumann rarity equals Beethoven and Schubert in perfectly executed programme
Kenny Garrett, Ronnie Scott's review - a mixed bag
Conjuring the spirit and treading water
Album: Sofia Härdig - Lighthouse of Glass
Swedish singer-songwriter takes control of her music
Music Reissues Weekly: Ibex Band - Stereo Instrumental Music
Ethiopian jazz album from 1976 which resists easy categorisation
Blu-ray: Yojimbo / Sanjuro
A pair of Kurosawa classics, beautifully restored
Rhinoceros, Almeida Theatre review - joyously absurd and absurdly joyful
Ionesco classic gets an entertainingly vivid and contemporary update
Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundaries in Prokofiev and Shostakovich
Master pianist shines the spotlight on star protégé in another unique programme
Mr Burton review - modest film about the birth of an extraordinary talent
Harry Lawtey and Toby Jones excel as the future Richard Burton and his mentor
Comments
...